Zooey Deschanel (Getty Images)

Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano in the same movie? Say it isn’t so! Fresh off the heels of The Happening and There Will Be Blood, respectively, both of these young actors tumble head-over-heels into indie comedy madness and stereotype with the decidedly quirky and occasionally violent indie comedy, Gigantic. Both of the actors are content in wallowing in indie film cliché, but somehow they make Gigantic work, despite the fact that we’ve seen the majority of this film before, when it was called Juno or Little Miss Sunshine.

Brian Wethersby (Paul Dano) is a twenty-something mattress salesman in Brooklyn who is intent on adopting a child from China, of all places. He keeps to himself until one day, when Harriet Lolly (though most call her “Happy”) (Zooey Deschanel) comes into his store and passes out on one of his beds after her father (John Goodman) came in and purchased it earlier that day. The two end up having rather awkward yet strangely passionate sex in the back of her father’s station wagon, and soon they begin to fall in love. Along the way, we are introduced to Brian’s bizarre and vaguely alcoholic relatives, and a strange homeless man who keeps following him around and brutally attacking him. What does it all mean? That’s up to you to figure out yourself.

Gigantic doesn’t quite provide answers to many of its plot’s strange little characteristics. Why is this homeless person constantly following Brian around? Why does he repeatedly beat him with various things, such as a shovel and a massive crowbar? Why all the violence in an otherwise lighthearted film? I honestly couldn’t tell you, though if it’s a metaphor for something greater, I think it’s a questionable and certainly shaky one at that. Gigantic, in these cases, leaves a little too much for the viewer to fill in, and instead of coming across as mysterious and unusual, ends up being slightly infuriating instead. The film is an indie comedy at heart, and its attempt to potentially stray away from that is admirable, but it simply does not work.

Paul Dano (Getty Images)

Dano and Deschanel have a ton of chemistry, however, and their sheer cuteness when on screen together makes the film worth watching. After viewing The Happening and subsequently wanting to stab my eyes out, I was wary about Deschanel’s acting abilities, but here she pulls off the quirky, troubled female archetype with relative ease. Her anger and sadness is understandable and doesn’t seem to be excessive. Dano, as per usual, gives a solid performance that is certainly more reigned-in than his previous efforts. Brian is no Eli Sunday, thankfully for that. The two bounce witty and bizarre dialogue off each other, and it doesn’t feel particularly forced or out of place, like with similarly fueled movies.

In the end, Gigantic wraps up nicely, giving you a warm and fuzzy feeling that is undeniably nice. Nevertheless, the underlying “what the hell was that?” feeling is also certainly present, and the sheer vagueness of a large chunk of this film’s plot makes it certainly different from other similar indie offerings but doesn’t necessarily make it a better film. Despite this, the film is so damn cute, at times, that you can’t help but go along with Dano and Deschanel, despite the plot’s shortcomings, and thus the film cannot be labeled as particularly awful. It’s a cute and problematic indie comedy and nothing more, but for what it is, it’s satisfying and worthy of my recommendation.